


Day 4: Trust

by GemmaRose



Series: Ten Days of Lawlu 2016 [4]
Category: One Piece
Genre: 10 days of LawLu, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Night Terrors, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-31
Updated: 2016-05-31
Packaged: 2018-07-11 08:49:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7041403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GemmaRose/pseuds/GemmaRose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Kaidou’s defeat, Luffy’s wounds aren’t all the sort which can be treated with bandages and a feast.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Day 4: Trust

It had been well over a decade since Law could’ve been called a heavy sleeper, but even the heaviest sleepers he knew would’ve woken up if they were on the receiving end of a Gum Gum Pistol. “The fuck?” he groaned, pressing a hand to the point of impact and slapping at the rubber idiot he’d been crazy enough to fall in love with. The only response was a whimper, and Law sat up at the sound. If Luffy had been tossing in his sleep and pulled out some of his stitches...

Luffy did indeed seem to have been tossing in his sleep, but all his bandages were still clean and smoothly taped down. All of them but the ones on his face. The gauze taped to his cheek was peeling off, the fabric soaked and adhesive loosened by tears. Luffy was crying in his sleep, breath hitching in near-silent sobs, nose running and smearing all over his pillowcase. His whole body was shaking, hands balled into tight fists, muscles twitching as he fought whatever monster was in his nightmare.

“Luffy-ya.” Law said quietly, shaking his boyfriend. “ _Luffy_.” he hissed, squeezing the rubberman’s uninjured shoulder. Luffy sat up with a shout, swinging wildly, and Law caught the first aimed at his head with a reflexively armoured palm. Luffy’s eyes were wide, terrified, and Law looked around to check the other people in this room. Brook slept like the dead (something he was never, _ever_ telling the skeleton) but Usopp was likely to wake up if Luffy started crying in earnest. The sniper was a light sleeper, and tended to complain when he was woken up in the middle of the night.

Law pulled Luffy into a one-armed hug with his left arm, and formed a Room with his right. There was a rock garden nearby, and he swapped himself and Luffy with a bit of gravel from the path. Luffy curled against him, and Law’s chest suddenly _hurt_. It was like when Vergo had been crushing his heart, but worse because the pain was coming from within his ribcage.

“Luffy?” he asked hesitantly, running a hand down his boyfriend’s arm. The rubberman shuddered, eyes refocusing, and Law pulled the smaller captain into a hug. “It’s okay.” he murmured, running a hand down Luffy’s back, gentle over the bandages. “It’s okay, Luffy.”

Luffy sobbed, a broken little sound Law never would’ve imagined coming from his boyfriend, and clung to Law hard enough his broken ribs hurt. “To-Toraaoooo.” he hiccuped at the end, narrow shoulders shaking with sobs, and Law tucked Luffy’s head under his chin.

“I’m here, Luffy.” he stopped stroking the rubberman’s back long enough to give him a tight hug. It took several minutes for Luffy to stop crying, and Law held him close the whole while, murmuring meaningless words of comfort in his ear. His shirt was a mess when Luffy pulled away, soaked with tears and smeared with snot. He reached out and cupped Luffy’s cheek, using his thumb to wipe away a tear.

“You alright?” he asked, keeping his other arm behind the small of Luffy’s back, holding his boyfriend close.

Luffy started to nod, reaching for his hat, but his hand met empty air. It was still back in the bedroom, lying next to Luffy’s pillow. Law formed a Room, and swapped the straw hat with the air over and around Luffy’s head. It settled in place easily, like it had always belonged there, and Luffy pulled down on the brim with a sniffle.

“I’m fine.” he smiled weakly, nose still running a bit. “Sorry I woke you up.”

“Luffy.” Law frowned, shifting so his hands were on Luffy’s hips. “Are you okay?” he moved his right hand up to Luffy’s chest, pressing his palm against crisp white bandages Chopper had wrapped and taped down just hours earlier. Luffy’s heart was still beating hard and fast. Law imagined it would feel like a fluttering bird, if he cut it out and held it in his hand.

Luffy sniffled, tugged on the brim of his hat so it folded down and obscured his eyes completely, and didn’t answer. Law sighed, and pressed a kiss to the crown of the hat. “Do you want to talk about it?” he asked, his left thumb tracing little circles over Luffy’s sleep shirt.

“I wasn’t strong enough.”

Law blinked, his fingers stilling. “What?”

“Against Kaidou.” Luffy’s breath shook, but his voice remained steady. Teary, but steady. “I wasn’t strong enough. I got shot, and then Franky and Nami and your crew got hurt holding off the Calamities so you could save me.” he sniffled, and lifted a hand to scrub at his eyes.

“Luffy.” Law’s chest ached again, like his ribcage was constricting and crushing his heart. What could he say to that? “It wasn’t your fault.” he said after a moment, lifting his right hand to cup Luffy’s cheek. “We had no way of knowing their devil fruit users were armed with seastone bullets.” Law smiled and tilted his boyfriend’s head up a bit, just enough to see the tip of his nose. “You’re the strongest man here, Luffy.”

Luffy ducked his head, his whole body curling in on itself, and for a moment Law panicked. What was he supposed to do? Luffy was always so cheery, so _strong_. How did you comfort someone like that? This wasn’t like the aftermath of Marineford, when Luffy had just lost the person he loved most in the world. That had been familiar, a pain he knew intimately. Now he wasn’t sure if he even knew why Luffy was crying.

“I- I was back in that cell. The quiet one, under the shogun’s palace.” Luffy’s voice was low, quiet, unsure. Law pushed his hand up under the signature straw hat, and curled his fingers against Luffy’s scalp. He hadn’t thought much of it at the time, too absorbed in making sure his boyfriend was alive, but for someone like Luffy to be alone in an anechoic chamber must’ve been torture.

“It was so dark, and quiet.” Luffy’s breath hitched, and he released the brim of his hat to squish his face against Law’s shoulder. The hat tipped backwards, falling to hang from its string against Luffy’s back. “I was in there forever, Torao. And then-” a sob wrenched out of his throat, and Law’s heart did that painful squeezing thing again. “Kaidou came, and he- he-”

“Shh.” Law murmured, disentangling his hand from the fallen hat and bringing it back up to card through Luffy’s messy black hair. “Shh, it was just a dream.”

“He gave me your _head_ , Torao.” Luffy sobbed, fresh tears soaking into the shoulder of Law’s shirt. “Yours, and Zoro’s and Nami’s and- and- I couldn’t _do_ anything.”

Law pulled Luffy into a tight hug, crushing the rubberman against his chest. “It was a dream.” he repeated firmly. “It was just a bad dream, Luffy. I’m here, we’re all here. You beat Kaidou into the dirt and saved everyone.”

Luffy sniffled, and relaxed slightly in Law’s lap. “Torao’s the best.” he mumbled, and Law felt a smile curling his lips. His chest still hurt, but in a very different way now. Where before it had felt like his torso was collapsing in on itself, not it felt like there was something wonderfully warm and bright trying to burst out of his ribcage. Love, that was the feeling. Would he ever stop being surprised by how much he loved this man?

Probably not.

“Let’s get back to bed.” Law said quietly, standing and pulling Luffy to his feet. Luffy frowned, and twisted his hand to lace their fingers together.

“Why? I wanna see if there’s any leftover meat-”

Law shut the smaller captain up with a quick kiss, then pulled Luffy’s hat up and put it back in place on his head. “Trust me, you still need sleep.”

“No I do-n’t.” Luffy yawned. Law rolled his eyes, and used his hand on the crown of Luffy’s hat to tilt it so it completely covered the rubberman’s eyes.

“Come on, Luffy.” he squeezed the hand twined with his own. “I’ll sleep better if you’re there with me.”

“Really?” Luffy grinned, bright as sunlight, and tilted his hat back to its usual angle.

“Yeah, so c’mon.” Law started towards the rock garden’s exit, Luffy humming tunelessly under his breath, and after a minute of getting their bearings they found the correct door. Luffy grabbed the pillow from his bed, dropped it next to Law’s, and flopped down close enough that Law could feel the warmth rolling off him. Then rubbery arms wrapped two, three times around his torso, and Law smiled as he felt Luffy start snoring against his back.

**Author's Note:**

> I took a slightly less direct approach to this one. It takes a massive amount of trust to open up to someone like this, and while Luffy is a very trusting person, he’s used to being strong. I think that being powerless to help while his nakama are fighting would be one of the worst things he could experience short of major character death, especially since he’s the captain and it’s his duty as captain to protect his crew. As such, I doubt he’d be comfortable opening up to one of his nakama about it, but Torao is his equal, Torao has already seen him at his worst. Luffy trusts Law enough to be weak in front of him is what I’m getting at.
> 
> And like, I know Luffy isn’t the type to dwell, but nightmares don’t care. Really, with all the Straw Hats’ backstories, and how often they almost _die_ , I’d be surprised if they didn’t all have the occasional night terror. Most of them probably just go back to sleep and try not to remember it in the morning.


End file.
